gavesako wrote:If you want to live in a peaceful and quiet place, you can join this red activist and enjoy a meditation room provided by the army for free:

NCPO Detains Red Activist 'To Help Her Meditate'BANGKOK — A military spokesperson has reportedly claimed the army is detaining a Redshirt activist at an undisclosed location so she can meditate without any distractions from the outside world. Kritsuda Khunasen, 27, was arrested by soldiers on 28 May in Chonburi province, according to a number of activists. She has been missing for three weeks, which exceeds the seven-day limit under martial law on detaining individuals without charges.

The military's silence on Ms. Kritsuda up until now has invited criticism from international rights groups such as the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), which released a statement on 18 June urging the authorities to clarify Ms. Kritsuda's whereabouts.

Col. Winthai Suwaree, a spokesperson of the military junta's National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), said yesterday that HRW need not worry because the military has merely provided Ms. Kritsuda with a safe haven "away from all the chaos and distraction," according to a Facebook post by Bangkok Post's self-styled "military reporter" Wassana Nanuam.

In the Facebook post, Ms. Wassana quotes Col. Winthai as saying that the military has detained Ms. Kritsuda to help her "meditate, restore consciousness, and reconsider many things, so that we can adjust [her] understanding."

Red-shirt activist Kritsuda Khunasen has revealed that when she was illegally detained by the junta, she was suffocated and physically assaulted. The torture was aimed at forcing her to link former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to hard core red-shirt groups, according to Kritsuda.

In late June, Kritsuda was the focus of media and human rights organizations’ attention because during her detention, no one was able to contact her and it was not known where she was detained. After rumours that she was tortured, Kritsuda appeared on a special TV program with the military junta spokesman and said she was “happier than words can say”. On Saturday, a video clip of an interview between her and Jom Petchpradab, an independent journalist, was released. Kritsuda said she has fled Thailand to start a new life in Europe.

In the interview via Skype, Kritsuda said she was blindfolded and her hands were bound on the first seven days of the detention. During this period, a female officer would help her when eating, taking a bath, and when she wanted to go to the toilet. She said while she was naked during taking bath, she heard a male voice. “I consider this sexual harassment.”

Thai opposition activist Kritsuda Khunasen said she was blindfolded and struggling to regain consciousness when she heard this chilling query from one of her interrogators.

She was detained for nearly a month by the Thai military after it toppled the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on May 22. Kritsuda said she was beaten by soldiers and hooded with a plastic bag until she blacked out.

"That was the moment I thought I'd died," she told Reuters via Skype from a secret location in Europe, where she is seeking political asylum.

Junta chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha has dismissed Kritsuda's claims as "totally untrue" and ignored United Nations calls for an investigation.

But allegations of abuse in military custody, plus signs of defiance on Thai campuses, undermine Prayuth's claim that the junta is - to borrow the title of his Friday-night TV address to the nation - "returning happiness to the people".

Prayuth has sought to reassure tourists, foreign investors and fellow Thais that the military has restored calm after months of divisive and sometimes deadly street protests.

But anti-coup activists and human rights monitors say that calm is sustained by a climate of fear, selectively but ruthlessly applied against opponents of a military eager to avoid its past mistakes.

Its 2006 coup, which overthrew the protest-besieged government of telecoms billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra, led only to further unrest that culminated in the military's bloody crackdown on Thaksin's "red shirt" supporters in 2010. His sister Yingluck was elected by a landslide the following year.

This time round, the junta - formally called the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) - has worked systematically to snuff out all challenges to its authority, no matter how small, said Sunai Phasuk, senior researcher for the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

"They don't blink," he said. "They have power and they use it. They don't care about criticism from the outside world or human rights groups."

The NCPO has detained hundreds of activists, academics, journalists and politicians, and set about purging the bureaucracy of Thaksin sympathizers.

Red shirt leaders told Reuters their movements were monitored, their phones tapped and their families harassed.

"We are very afraid. Most of our members have gone into hiding or are laying low," said a prominent red shirt activist on condition of anonymity. "There are people lurking outside our children's schools."

The junta has silenced other political opponents by publicly threatening to seize their assets. Dissenters living abroad have had their Thai passports revoked.

The military has also shut down websites and exploited draconian laws that forbid all criticism of Thailand's royal family. Martial law remains in place nationwide.

"People who disagree with the coup still live in fear," said Human Right Watch's Sunai. He believed a long period of oppressive military rule could backfire by triggering the very unrest it was designed to suppress.

"Then there will be a very serious threat of violent confrontation," he said.

Nazi analogies...in the small amount of time the army has had the wheel, things are changing (outwardly, it seems) for the better...another year of the ousted Thai government and the cupboard would have been completely bare, along with people ripping each other's faces off (Red vs. Yellow, etc...)...Thailand would have (from a personal perspective) tanked really badly...as I've read, Germany was carrying some serious baggage from WW1 (and held responsible by some as a major cause for what transpired '39 to '45)...had that not been the case, it's possible the Austrian might not have been successful creating the nasty behemoth that he did...apples and oranges on other levels as well...so, just thinking 'out loud'...

Click bait from the MSM...life in Thailand is rolling right along for 99% of folks, with the (possible) prospect of better days ahead...basically the only ones whinging are politicians and law breakers...rights activists are sounding the alarm although the only ones whose rights MAY have been/are being set upon are the afore mentioned...the 'We want Democracy' cabal are dreaming...how's (the most celebrated) democracy working out for America? (and the rest of 'them')...that ship has long since sailed where the majority having a say on how things should be (if ever there was such a time)...places where it isn't nuts are getting fewer by the day...oh well...

.the 'We want Democracy' cabal are dreaming...how's (the most celebrated) democracy working out for America? (and the rest of 'them')...

Thats an idea. Perhaps thailand can be an example to Britain, France and the USA. The military could install a general as dictator, and start rounding up dissenters. Ban dangerous books like George Orwells 1984, or films like The Hunger Games.

I see things coming out of North korea showing how happy they are. Even birds and animals cried when the last Great Leader passed away. No one would shed much tears for our politicians.

appicchato wrote:N.in the small amount of time the army has had the wheel, things are changing (outwardly, it seems) for the better...another year of the ousted Thai government and the cupboard would have been completely bare, along with people ripping each other's faces off (Red vs. Yellow, etc...)....

Seems that the big reason for ousting the gov't was corruption and that the main point of corruption was the gov't's rice buying scheme. The junta did a thorough search of the rice warehouses which were part of the scheme. I don't recall them finding any evidence of corruption.....there was some rice that was stolen and some of the thieves were caught as I recall....and there was some spoilage as I recall.....but I don't recall anything that implicated the Yingluck gov't in any corruption. Did I miss something? Was some corruption uncovered?....or was the alleged corruption just an excuse to oust the gov't? If there was no corruption found was there an apology made for the false allegations?chownah

Last edited by chownah on Fri Aug 22, 2014 11:06 am, edited 1 time in total.

Click bait from the MSM...life in Thailand is rolling right along for 99% of folks, with the (possible) prospect of better days ahead...basically the only ones whinging are politicians and law breakers...rights activists are sounding the alarm although the only ones whose rights MAY have been/are being set upon are the afore mentioned...the 'We want Democracy' cabal are dreaming...how's (the most celebrated) democracy working out for America? (and the rest of 'them')...that ship has long since sailed where the majority having a say on how things should be (if ever there was such a time)...places where it isn't nuts are getting fewer by the day...oh well...

Thank you, bhante. That is pretty much what I hoped would be the case in Thailand. Having the army step in and redefine the government every so often isn't the way we do it ourselves but it seems to have worked reasonably well for Thailand in the past. And, as you suggest, there aren't many countries in a position to be highly critical of it.

Click bait from the MSM...life in Thailand is rolling right along for 99% of folks, with the (possible) prospect of better days ahead...basically the only ones whinging are politicians and law breakers...rights activists are sounding the alarm although the only ones whose rights MAY have been/are being set upon are the afore mentioned...the 'We want Democracy' cabal are dreaming...how's (the most celebrated) democracy working out for America? (and the rest of 'them')...that ship has long since sailed where the majority having a say on how things should be (if ever there was such a time)...places where it isn't nuts are getting fewer by the day...oh well...

Thank you, bhante. That is pretty much what I hoped would be the case in Thailand. Having the army step in and redefine the government every so often isn't the way we do it ourselves but it seems to have worked reasonably well for Thailand in the past. And, as you suggest, there aren't many countries in a position to be highly critical of it.

Kim

It worked reasonably well in what respect? It worked reasonably well to benefit whom? The military making a coup every six or eight years for the last 70 or 80 years has not worked reasonably well in promoting democracy in Thailand....if that matters...chownah